The words for 'nation'
(Guo Jia 國家) separated by a
mobile phone number to get fake identity documents

The photo above collected in Irony
Lives In China: A Photo Album triggered some memories from the very
interesting book, Rhetoric of The Chinese Cultural Revolution by Lu Xing.

(p. 121) In traditional operas, loyalty
to the emperor and obedience to authority were highly praised. The
Mandate of Heaven mythology of ancient China was naturally extended to
adoration for Mao Zedong in modern times. When revolutionary songs
equated Mao with the gold sun and his teachings with sunshine, the Chinese
embraced such exaltation and took it in stride. Loyalty to the emperor
was transferred to Mao and the party. Obedience to authority became
obedience to Mao's teachings. Similarly, traditional Chinese values
emphasized sacrifice for the community and state. The new revolutionary
art forms celebrated sacrifice for the proletarian cause.

In Chinese language the two characters guo國
(state) and jia家
(family) are always used together, implying that the head of the county is
also the head of the family. As China has had three thousand years of
practicing filial piety in relation to the family, it was not difficult to
extend the practice and apply it to the head of state. Though Mao
presented himself as a radical reformer of Chinese society and was critical of
traditional Chinese attitudes concerning filial piety and loyalty, he allowed
the masses to worship him as another Chinese emperor. The only
difference was that no Chinese emperor before him had ever been elevated to
such a grand scale of deification.

Several interviewees shared with me the
processes they underwent in eventually coming to regard Mao as a living
saint. Before the Cultural Revolution they already had great adoration
for Mao, but not to the extent that Mao was even dearer to them than their own
parents were. After singing and hearing many songs eulogizing Mao and
his thought, these interviewees were convinced that Mao was the dearest, the
wisest, and the greatest. They felt lucky to live during Mao's era and
came to feel that they would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives to defend
him.

Toward the end of the Cultural Revolution the
cult of Mao began to decline as many had become disillusioned.
Interestingly, the worship for Mao has made a comeback in today's China.
Many popular songs eulogizing Mao during the Cultural Revolution have regained
their popularity and are available in the marketplace. It seems that the
Chinese psyche needs a mythical figure like Mao. On the other hand, the
practice of placing absolute faith in a god-like leader seems to have been
shattered to a large degree by Mao's death. Deng Xiaopeng and the
current leaders (for example, Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin) were never elevated to
cult status as Mao was. No songs have been written eulogizing their
dees, and it is actually quite acceptable nowadays to criticize and even
ridicule state leaders in private settings.

So maybe there still isn't anyone cursing out Hu
Jintao (and his mother) in public these days, but there is no lack of weasels trying to
curry favor with authorities everywhere. However, these days, those
weasels may come under open attack by others for their behavior. Such is
the case of this post at Xici
Hutong's Reporters Section which is directed at an unnamed commentator who
published an essay in the Chinese Youth Daily.

[in translation]

On your July 15 essay, the first sentence was
"General Secretary Hu Jintao's important directive for university student
voluntary services in the western region was like a beacon that points out a
direction for the university students to move forward." This made
me quite embarrassed and disgusted, and stopped my desire to read another word
further.

I don't know how to write commentaries, but I
do know how to read. I have often read terms of adulation such as
"like the north star", "like the red sun" and "like a
beacon." I have even thought of myself as "the trapped beast
groping in the dark", "the weak seedling needing to be nurtured by sunlight" and "the
lone lost boat". But that was thirty
years ago. After the north star retreats, the red sun sets and the
beacon shuts down, then we can truly regard our nation and ourselves.